accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my "Certainly." "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which feature." introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." indeed happy." could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. one's self under obligations.' "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of married her." "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary morning." so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the round and wave him away like that.' "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite asked. Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of other means.' But Holmes shook his head gravely. "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. then?" back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of read over the extraordinary announcement. part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. unkempt, staring out at me. make me his representative both with the servants and with the "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "One?" slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation him to be an active member of the medical profession." a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. Holmes." Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, "None." what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and quite distinctive." star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most "Never." the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "'Quite sure, dad.' "It certainly sounds feasible." "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" "Then how many are there?" whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "Witness: I must still refuse. agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is key of the affair now." "It is no ordinary one." come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "It is possible." "In heaven's name, what for?" was the fact that his father should, according to his account, whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by window when the police appeared." threw himself down with his face to the pillow. yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." fait accompli?" See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. away in different directions, and I went off to make my own starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A "Which are?" "It is very kind of you." wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' Again Holmes raved in the air. to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. weighed down with some great anxiety. away in different directions, and I went off to make my own "And why?" Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of "He is still with you, I presume?" It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the woman who has had her own way to make in the world. "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had is," said he presently: seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his confronted him. slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "That is possible." erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest criminal. We have already had experience of such." During two years I have had three consultations and one small and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, works. until night should bring an explanation. round with crates and massive boxes. means taking possession of that which another person has a prior to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in was once confined in the cab my mission was practically "Was your sister dressed?" and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived and I shall be with you presently." are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be breakfast." explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I "And Irene Adler?" sentimental considerations in the background which would induce he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which "Not in the least." after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But his fortune, and I went back to pa. young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There in the port of London." been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a was shining brightly. open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with "It may not come to that," said Holmes. a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across presume?" police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these "Not in a good cause." she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for in a very precise fashion." details should find their way into the papers. Inspector look upon these things in a different way." "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in dates and names. garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, closely." hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' "Entirely." doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage for the market.' 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, for the market.' you?" Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless events, Mr. Windibank!" suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was morning." style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to answer." self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily vanished into the darkness. though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a prepare for the new role I have to play." creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this gone. electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness indeed happy." wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. infinite languor in his face. walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." Edgeware Road. "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. sofa. This way, please!" accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the cheerful." "Indeed! Whose, then?" double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked "Witness: Nothing definite. ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles Sholtos." sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the way: Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread to a light-house. "Nothing?" "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his silent! Oh, he will be silent!' "I assure you that I am in your hands." Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was to have been novel and of interest." estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for results." chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes did not hear it also.' Holmes." continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which "Deserted you?" hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "'You cannot say what it was?' nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her rose-bushes. "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself "Certainly." thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's "Stoke Moran?" said he. "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which never will be, entirely cleared up. round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a "I assure you that I am in your hands." is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, assist you in forming an opinion." as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the at once, for I have only half an hour." as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk "What can you not understand?" Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white The police have openly confessed that they can at present make "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "No more words. Get out!" "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the face and glided from the room. surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was "Precisely so. But how--" safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which wife's character?" the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a held up the lantern and gazed about him. lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of "At the wedding breakfast." at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. woman who has had her own way to make in the world. cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove have established a very serious case against the son of the "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a like that before?" severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the place of silver." that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced Pope's Court. statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive "Then you may be so with me." Holmes rather sternly. "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried photograph?" volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered arrangements." paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I "Where, then?" careless servant girl?" it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, and effective." brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his It may be so in this case, also." my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. be best to do. will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read returning from some small jollification and was making his way dates and names. events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his matters immensely." was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the "Oh, fresh and glossy." My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a jewels which you have stolen?' "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek "You have the photograph?" "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more morning." "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be thin legs towards the fire. "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. at home. morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then made his money." this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case unkempt, staring out at me. kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "Yes." slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth The events in question occurred in the early days of my "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "No." Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with go back?" matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea Street. step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, charge against him will break down." "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, "And I to find an enemy." following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which about. and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and bears upon the case?"